Say It the way Jesus Did!

Have you ever heard of the 18” rule on faith?  It goes something like this.  The difference between heaven and hell is 18”, the distance between believing the gospel in your head vs. believing it in your heart.  I suspect those who use that are getting it from Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  However, it’s clear Paul was referring to our conscious mind because his explanatory statement in v. 10 “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness;” clarifies it. 

I used the term conscious mind because it is the essence of who we are as individuals.  It is the center of our identity and understanding of the world around us.  BDAG defines its usage in Romans 10 as the seat of our physical, spiritual and mental life. 

I know the people who push the idea of head knowledge vs. heart knowledge mean well.  And they don’t mean to confuse people about faith, but in reality, that is what they are doing.  They are suggesting there is more than one way to believe.  Just like those who speak of genuine faith or saving faith vs. non-saving faith they are implying there is a way to believe in Jesus Christ that does not bring everlasting life.  And that can create doubt which will rob people of assurance and peace with God. 

Jesus Christ always treated believing as a binary function, you either believe Him or you don’t.  There was never an almost kind of faith.  Believing is recognizing a proposition as being true.  So, why not just say it the way Jesus Christ said it. 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 6:47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

Paul warned the Corinthians to not corrupt the simplicity of the saving message. And that warning applies to us.  Don't complicate what God has made simple.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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I’m sure you don’t want to trust your final destiny to a false doctrine. And I hope you don’t want to contribute to someone else getting it wrong either.   So, again stand on what the Lord Jesus Christ said.